Posted
by
samzenpus
on Thursday November 15, 2012 @03:11AM
from the giant-book-that's-written-inside-you dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Scientists announced Wednesday that they have mapped the entire genome of the domestic pig, revealing that besides providing tasty bacon and sausages, the animal may also be useful in fighting human diseases. The study published in the journal Nature found that pigs and humans share 112 DNA mutations that have previously been linked to diseases like obesity, diabetes, dyslexia, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, according to US and European researchers. Researchers said that because pigs share many of the same complex genetic diseases as humans, the animals would serve as excellent models for studying the underlying biology of human disease."

Glad to see more work in this realm, as we already have seen a high organ compatibility with pigs it seems that we know a number of building blocks are already shared. With this kind of information we should be able to better isolate and (ethically) create both genetic changes and medicines to treat these diseases that would potentially hold a high efficacy in humans.

Hmm, I suppose that since primary objections relate to ingestion that at least non-oral treatments/medicines would already be fairly unobjectionable. Now if oral medicines are biologically derived and cannot be done so without the pig as an intermediary...then yes that would be an interesting predicament for some.. folks. Not me though, just hide the pill in a sausage and I'll be a test subject.

It's not the eating, it's the living conditions. We've kept pigs sheltered enough that they can experience the same problems as us, and suffer the same consequences. In a less safe environment, avoiding defects like obesity would be a much stronger selective pressure—but that's not a big deal in a pig pen.

No matter how unhealthy it is, factory farming doesn't involve predators, running, or starvation. Moreover, that's way too recent of a change for it to have an appreciable impact on the course of evolution.

This basically amounts to little or no evolutionary pressure. As with any organism, their chromosomes are free to mutate and diversify as long as it doesn't get them killed, and there's a lot more leeway for livestock than wild animals.

Woah... so although you don't actually "take" part of the rice's genetic code as yours, eating rice may alter the way genes activate... in a way that makes you get an extra dose of "bad" cholesterol. I suppose it's good that I don't eat too much rice, then.

Yep and perhaps if we eat the same foods as another species, we're more likely to develop similar problems.. I don't know. It seems a very immature field of study, but it certainly is interesting:)

They eat a lot of rice in Japan and that's one of the countries with the longest average life spans, so I don't know if the issue is all that simple. They do tend to eat smaller portions over there though. Personally I'm quite happy to go on eating rice for the moment.